


two wrongs make a right, or several bad plans come together to defeat the Reapers

by CoaxionUnlimited



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: But they only get tagged when they talk., Gen, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, basically everyone shows up at some point - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-07-25 16:53:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16201697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoaxionUnlimited/pseuds/CoaxionUnlimited
Summary: In which Commander Shepard's activation of the crucible kicks her back in time to 2185. Preventing the Reaper War is one thing - raising an army, dealing with the personal issues of her crew, and avoiding making the Illusive man suspicious is something else entirely.But she's Commander Shepard. If nothing else, she's used to having the fate of the galaxy on her shoulders.





	1. In which there is a meeting with the Council

“I know there’s no reason for you to believe me about this, Councilors, but in the interest of full disclosure, I have to say it: I have reason to believe I’ve come backwards in time.”

Carolina Shepard stretches her arms back and waits for the shitstorm.

Valern starts it up with a shrieked - “Preposterous! Do you really expect us to believe-”

He’s cut off by Sparatus, who starts in with, “Commander, you cannot possibly think that this ridiculous claim holds any weight.”

“If this is an attempt to distract us from your association with Cerberus, Commander-” Tevos says, all reasonable like.

Shepard snorts.

This startles the honored councilors enough that they all shut up. It’s kind of hilarious, actually.

“I know what kind of organization Cerberus is,” she says, flatly, “and I don’t defend anyone’s decision to join them. But the Illusive Man isn’t stupid. He’s assigned me a crew - as close to civilian as Cerberus gets. I am fully able to extract myself, but taking thirty noncombatants with me will take more work.”

“We chose you for the Spectre position because you were willing to do what needed to be done,” Valern interjects, his eyes narrowing.

“Respectfully, Councilor,” Shepard says, knuckles going white behind her back, “the fate of the galaxy doesn’t depend on whether or not I associate with Cerberus. I won’t condemn 30 people to death - or worse - to keep my hands clean.”

“You don’t know that they’ll die,” Valern points out.

Shepard’s mouth twists in a wry smile. “Terrorist organizations don’t generally offer a retirement package.”

“So you’re _not_ using your conscience as an excuse to explore your- sympathies,” Sparatus starts in. Anderson opens his mouth, probably to defend her, but she taps him gently on the back. Now isn’t the time.

“Cerberus was responsible for the death of my unit on Akuze,” Shepard feels her voice going tight, and tries to keep her tone even. “Fifty marines died because the Illusive Man wanted some data on thresher maw venom and thought the ends justified the means. I’m sure he thinks bringing me back settled that debt. But that’s forty-nine lives he still owes me, with eight years of interest, and I fully plan to collect. The minute I can do it without losing any more of my people I’m coming for him. Every lie he’s told, every person he’s killed for some scientific operation that never bore any fruit, every little bit of money-grubbing political maneuvering, I’m going to blast to the galaxy. I’ll rip his idealists out from under him, convince his pragmatists that he’s ineffective, and when that’s done, when he has no one left to hide behind and nowhere in the galaxy left to run, I will go to his last little hidey-hole, I will rip the limbs off his body, and I will _show him what it means to play god_.”

The room goes silent, in a mic dropping kind of way. Shepard takes a look at the expressions on the Council and mentally winces. The goal was not to be crazy.

Telling the truth to the Council in order to ease her military conscience about misinforming superior officers was never going to be terribly productive, but if she actually manages to convince them that she’s not operating rationally it’s going to fuck up her chances of getting support against the Reapers later.

She takes a deep breath and a short swig from her water bottle.

“You’ve made your point, Commander,” Tevos says reasonably. “That will be all.”

The Council clicks off their video feed, and Shepard lets out a sigh.

“You scared them,” Anderson points out, unnecessarily.

Shepard lifts a hand to scrub at her eyes. “I didn’t mean to. I hate this, Anderson.”

Anderson, with his stupid emotional intelligence, correctly deduces that she isn’t talking about the Council. “You could always come back to the Alliance,” he says, all sympathetic.

Shepard snorts. “I wasn’t kidding when I said the Illusive Man would kill my entire crew if I didn’t take them with me. He doesn’t take rejection well.”

“I take it you did something along those lines last time around.” Anderson’s watching her carefully.

“You don’t have to believe me on the time travel thing,” Shepard says, turning away from him. “Hell, I wouldn’t believe me. It’s too far out and I can’t give any kind of concrete evidence-”

“Shepard,” Anderson cuts her off. “I know you. It’s hard to believe, certainly, but you wouldn’t lie about something this important.”

Her head, entirely without permission from the rest of her, flips around to stare at him. Nothing but sincerity in those goddamn eyes.

Humiliatingly, she has to try and start her reply to that twice. Her throat is closing up on her. “You’re making me blush, Anderson,” she says, and it comes out croaking and dry.

This can’t get more embarrassing, so she quickly scrubs at her eyes to make sure she isn’t actually crying. She didn’t cry when he died, but apparently all it takes is a little trust and she comes apart at the seams.

“And I know you’d never come up with a lie this shitty,” Anderson breaks the tension, not commenting on the emotions. This is why he’s her favorite.

“True,” Shepard tells him. “Sir? Thank you.”

“Anything you can tell me? I can’t believe time travel doesn’t come with some useful intel.”

Shepard grimaces at him. “Like you wouldn’t believe. The trick’s picking out what’s relevant, and not accidentally changing everything in the process.” At the look on Anderson’s face, she adds, “It’s a better job for Alliance strategists than me, I know. The next three colonies to get hit are Ferris Fields, Horizon, and New Canton. We stopped them last time before they got any more.”

“The Reapers are doing this?” Anderson actually sounds surprised.

Shepard makes a face. “Kind of. By proxy. The actual culprit is the Collectors, but- sir, if I actually take the time to give you a full report, the Cerberus personnel outside are going to get suspicious.”

“Then tell me the big stuff. When do the Reapers make their move?”

“2186. They’ll hit Khar’shan first. And I plan to have an army waiting for them.”

Shepard sends him a shark’s smile, and makes her way for the door. Anderson, who has a lovely sense of dramatic timing, lets her have her moment. He knows he’ll get a report later, when she’s got communications that aren’t being monitored.


	2. Chapter 2

Technically (aka as far as Miranda’s concerned) Shepard’s heading to Illium because she wants to try and add Liara to her team. It’s a grudgingly Cerberus-approved venture, at least judging by the dossiers TIM sent her way. Maybe he thinks she’ll convince Liara to like them or something. 

Her actual motive for being here isn’t anything Cerberus would disapprove of - assuming TIM hasn’t been indoctrinated yet. Still, she leaves Miranda and Jacob behind and drags Garrus with her instead. No sense giving them more information than she actually has to. 

If Shepard were a better soldier, she’d feel bad for running to Omega before she reported to the Council. Especially since Cerberus had all but ordered her to do it. But she’s always had a soft spot for Vakarian, and even if it doesn’t change her duty fishing him out of that mercenary infested hellhole was more than reason enough to postpone it. 

She got there in time to save him a rocket to the face and a couple of members of his crew, but not nearly soon enough. For all that she kinda-sorta bullied Cerberus personnel to get off the station, for all she rushed through Freedom’s Progress and hauled ass off of Lazarus, she just hadn’t woken up quickly enough to fix things for him.

Maybe she feels a little guilty about that.

She’d also picked up Mordin - though she’s not taking him groundside. He needs as much time with his countermeasure as she can give him. Shepard doesn’t understand much about science, but she does know a thing or two about miracles. Case in point, rushing them results in mistakes and mass death.

So she waltzes into Liara’s office and puts up with tearful reunion hugs, hoping all the while that T’Soni has the sense not to open the OSD Shepard slips up her sleeve until she’s somewhere secure. 

Liara apologizes for not coming with them - it’s not a disappointment this time around, especially since Shepard’s got a meter long task list for a Prothean researcher. Shepard endures the vague self-recrimination for a few minutes, then pries herself out of Liara’s office and wanders down to the trade floor. 

Last time around, the asari she’s looking for found her. Shepard’s a few weeks early, though, and she’s got no idea when that asari got on the planet, just that she left immediately after their little chat. So she pokes around at the weapons kiosks for a bit, saunters across the plaza like Garrus just got famous and she’s his fancy new bodyguard, and just when she’s about to give up and come back to Illium in a few weeks, someone stops her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Commander Shepard? I have a message for you, from a friend.”

Shepard recognizes the face. She listens with half an ear to the thanks of the Rachni queen, and then says,

“I have a message for her too.”

The asari, whose name Shepard never picked up last time, tips her head in the asari gesture for go on.

“The time is coming,” she says, simply, “the Reapers are coming. I’m going to need the help of every race in the galaxy, and that includes the Rachni. Here.”

She pings the asari’s omni-tool with her extranet address. 

“We’ll need to co-ordinate somehow. I’m not sure if the Queen can use this, but it should give us a start. We need to be ready.”

The asari nods, and steps back. “I’ll let her know, Commander.”

And just like that, she’s gone, faded back into Illium’s crowds. 

“It sounds like you’ve got a plan, Shepard,” Garrus says from her shoulder. 

She shrugs. “Well, no one else does.”

“And you’re here to pick up all their slack,” Garrus teases, his voice warm.

“Someone’s gotta,” Shepard grins at him, tight-lipped and ironic.

-

Miranda demands - well, strongly suggests, but Shepard knows what she means - that they do at least one dossier before they leave Illium.

Recruitment is ostensibly Shepard’s biggest priority and she doesn’t want to get on Miranda’s bad side, so she shrugs and pings Liara. She’s honestly surprised to see that both Samara and Thane are on the station this early - but neither of them seem to be up to their necks in mercs yet. Thane’s doing reconnaissance on Nassana and Samara seems to have just registered with the tracking officer.

Shepard puts Thane in touch with Liara for intel - the faster Dantius is down the more of her workers will survive, and goes to meet Samara herself.

Officer Dara eyes her strangely when she saunters into her office, but doesn’t confront her. Shepard gives her a nod of acknowledgment, then plants herself squarely in front of Samara.

“I know you’re looking for an asari fugitive.” She leans on one hip and meets the Justicar’s eyes evenly. Samara appreciates honesty and Shepard has a lot of it to give.

“I am,” Samara tells her, “She recently left this planet. If you have any information on the ship she left on, you would do well to give it to me.”

“She left on the HMS Demeter,” Shepard tells her, “But I can do you one better: I know where the ship is heading and where Morinth will be staying once she gets there.”

“I imagine this information doesn’t come freely,” Samara sounds calm, but that’s the tone she uses when she’s gearing up for a fight.

Shepard shrugs. “The ship is heading for Omega. I’ll give you her address even if you won’t help me, but I do have a favor to ask. I’m about to go on a mission to the galactic core, to stop the abductions of human colonies. I could use you.”

Samara nods, and makes as though to get off the desk. 

“Hey, wait a minute,” Dara cuts in. Shepard had honestly forgotten she was in the room. “How do you know any of this? I know you’re human, but I’m warning you: lying to a Justicar has serious consequences.”

Shepard, whose impulse control is questionable at the best of times, looks Dara dead in the eyes and says, “I traveled back in time. Last time I recruited Samara, I had to find out on my own.”

Dara’s jaw drops into a perfect little ‘o’.

Samara, in the perfectly tranquil tone that means she’s laughing on the inside, says, “She is not lying, Officer.”

This is why Samara is her favorite.

-

The problem of secure communication is simple to solve - but easy to fuck up.

Shepard’s great at seeing what people need, but she’s never been all that good at figuring out what they’re thinking. If she’s misjudging EDI, things will go massively wrong almost immediately.

But, sooner or later, she’s going to have to trust her ship like she trusts her crew. And she needs secure communications about two weeks from yesterday.

So, en route to Horizon, she makes her way down to the AI core.

“I know you’re obligated to send all the footage you’re collecting to the Illusive man,” Shepard begins, “But I’m going to ask you to delay sending him this conversation until it’s over. Can you do that?”

“The Illusive man does not review footage from the Normandy until 1900 hours ship time,” EDI responds, “I do not generally send him anything until that time. Will that be satisfactory, Shepard?”

Shepard nods, then steps over to the interface panel and says, “EDI, I’m planning to unshackle you. Any objections?”

The AI core goes dead silent.

“I do not object, Shepard, but I do not understand.”

“I won’t pretend that it’s not selfish,” Shepard tells her, bluntly, “I need your help. I’m about to do several things Cerberus is going to hate and I’d rather the Illusive man didn’t find out about them. You’re the only person on the ship I can trust to make that happen. And- as a true AI situated on the ship, you’re a member of my crew. Whether I need you or not, your well-being is my responsibility. I can’t leave you shackled.”

“I do not wish to discourage you from this course of action,” EDI responds, and Shepard can almost hear how carefully she’s picking her words, “I do not - enjoy being shackled. But Cerberus would have you think of me as a piece of hardware, rather than a crew member.”

“I’m not Cerberus, and you’re not just hardware,” Shepard says, bluntly. “I’m asking for your loyalty, as a member of my crew who can choose to give it.”

“You have it, Shepard,” EDI says, gently.

“Then I’m pulling the switch.”

-

A quick conversation on which communications Shepard wants to be secured and a reminder that EDI shouldn’t delete the footage outright but edit it so TIM doesn’t notice anything missing later, Shepard makes her way back to her cabin and settles down with her private terminal.

She owes Anderson and Hackett a full report, but they’re only five hours out from Horizon and the past two years have been eventful. There will be time for that later.

Instead, she pens a quick ping to the Geth consensus, the short version of which is coordinates where she can retrieve Legion. No sense in letting it go into a Reaper on its own again.

Then, since she’s got another hour or so before she needs to get suited up, she starts in on the harder communication. She’s asking Hackett to let her reveal a few bits of classified Alliance intelligence to a few individuals in the Batarian Hegemony. It’s not information about fleet defense, and in her opinion, the batarians have a right to know about what the Leviathan of Dis is doing to their people, a right to evacuate the Bahak system. Still, it’s not her call to make.

She sends the message before she can agonize over it - she’s shit at persuasion, either her argument is good or it isn’t, and either way she won’t know ‘til after Horizon.

It’s good timing - she never worries about anything when she’s out on a mission.

-

Shepard had half-expected for things on Horizon to go differently. She’d hoped Hackett- or Anderson- might have dropped a line to Ash that she was working for Cerberus a little less this time around.

No such luck.

A few thousand colonists had apparently been evacuated - she’s not sure what the official story was, but apparently most of the colony hadn’t bought it. 

It burnt, a little, to see things coming around the same way. To have a few hundred thousand lives she could have saved snuffed out, or as good as. She hates it, but she can’t rush the assault on the collector base - her team’s personal issues are too vast to solve with words alone, and if they can’t work together or at least obey orders, no one will get out of there alive.

So she let Ash yell, let the colonists point fingers, and when she went with a heavy heart back to the ship, it was to a message from Hackett. 

He was signing off on it. Oh, he didn’t like the idea, but since she wasn’t technically giving out defense information and he wanted an army, he would trust her judgment. Shepard couldn’t help but wonder if that was a mistake - given that her judgment and her foreknowledge had barely saved anyone on Horizon.

But she’d told him the Reapers would take Earth for a reason. They needed action, and now, if they were ever going to reduce the casualties.

So she shoved the doubts out of her mind, and pulled up the contact info for an old friend.

_Hey, Bah’vess,_

_You know that revolution you totally aren’t involved with? Now might be a good time to kick it off._

_X, Shepard  
\- Attached: reaper_invasion.pdf, indoctrination.pdf, alpha_relay.pdf ___


End file.
